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EON Reality, EICC Partner to Open Virtual Reality School

IRVINE, CA, Sep 27, 2016 – EON Reality Inc., the world leader in virtual reality based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment, and Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) announced a partnership to establish the EON Innovation Academy at EICC, an EON Entrepreneur School. The Academy provides the college’s graduates and others with the opportunity to further develop their skills through project-based learning, working on real customer projects.

The announcement comes on the heels of EICC’s unveiling earlier this year of its new virtual reality lab located at the college’s Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center (ATEEC), 201 N. Harrison Street, Davenport. The equipment for the lab was funded in part by a $15 million grant awarded to Iowa’s community colleges by the U.S. Department of Labor’s employment & training administration.

“We can’t overstate the significance of this partnership,” EICC chancellor Don Doucette said. “Students in the program will be positioned for entry into some of the highest level Virtual Reality jobs not only in the Quad Cities but around the world.”

Doucette said the college and the Quad Cities join an elite group of cities around the world that can boast of having an EON Reality School in their community. It is the fourth in the United States and is part of a school network that spans every inhabited continent.

“We’re looking forward to a fruitful partnership with Eastern Iowa Community Colleges to address the needs of the regional market,” said Mats Johansson, CEO and president of EON Reality. “We are also excited about the ability to jointly develop unique knowledge transfer applications that utilize the college’s subject matter expertise and industry connections.”

The EON Innovation Academy at EICC follows EON Reality’s Entrepreneur School curriculum that teaches the skills needed to be successful in creating Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content and applications for industry and education. These skills also enable students to work in architecture and product visualization, game creation, multimedia design and broadcast media.

The curriculum for the Innovation Academy is divided into two distinct phases. The first is a four-month training program that teaches students the basics of Augmented and Virtual Reality such as 3D modeling, animation and basic scripting.

The second phase comprises real life project work providing students the opportunity to add projects for regional and global companies to their portfolios. Many times projects are with Fortune 500 companies. Students will be mentored by global Virtual Reality experts and have the opportunity to tap into EON Reality’s global development network.

“The increased demand for Virtual Reality training solutions across all market segments is exposing a large need for skilled 3D artists, modelers, and programmers,” Johansson said. “Eastern Iowa Community Colleges is a great example of how EON Reality is bringing our 17 years of experience into regions that need these VR/AR skills. The students that graduate from the Iowa school will form the foundation of a Virtual Reality based economy in Iowa and Illinois.”

To accommodate the new training the college’s virtual reality lab will be further expanded to accept up to 20 students in the program. The program will start in January.

“This is a rare opportunity for anyone interested in jobs in this rapidly growing field,” said Doucette. “The academy will be a permanent addition to our educational offerings and part of our growing Information Technology classes and programs.”

Based in Irvine, CA, EON Reality provides education and training in Virtual Reality and interactive 3D technologies in the areas of Education, Industry and Edutainment.

The market for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality knowledge transfer solutions is experiencing rapid global growth and is expected to reach $150 Billion by 2020 and disrupting the mobile market. To provide context, this growth will far exceed the current desktop market of $80 Billion.

For more information about the EON Innovation Academy at EICC, contact Ellen Kabat-Lensch, EICC vice chancellor for workforce and economic development at 563-336-3331 or ekabat@eicc.edu.

About EON Reality

EON Reality is the world leader in virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment. EON Reality’s success is tied to its belief that knowledge is a human right and should be available, accessible, and affordable for every human on the planet. To carry this out, EON Reality, since 1999, has developed the de-facto standard for augmented reality and virtual reality based knowledge transfer software that supports devices from mobile phones to large immersive domes. EON Reality’s global app development network, with twenty-two locations worldwide, has created the world’s leading AR/VR library for knowledge transfer with over 7,000 applications. Over 36 million people worldwide have downloaded these applications.